Tape Project Forum
Tape Machines => Tape Tech => Topic started by: xcortes on November 13, 2010, 02:49:15 PM
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I owed this try to Steve since long ago. Just a quick note to post that the Quickie gain is enough to boost the Seduction level so that it can drive a Dolby unit (with an RS 1500.
Cheers
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Thanks Xavier!
That experiment totally slipped my mind and I'm glad to see that your memory isn't as far gone as mine.
For someone that's into listening to Dolby encoded tapes, that has to be the low priced leader with an all tube front end.
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For the record the Seduction has the Anticipation upgrade (C4S). I don't think it would male it without 'cause its on the limit.
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Xavier,
Can you tell me more about this??? I am reading into this right??? One can use a Quickie to boost the gain of a Seduction??
Jay
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yep, if your seduction has the anticipation upgrade the gain of the quickie is enough to drive one of steve's Dolby units.
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yep, if your seduction has the anticipation upgrade the gain of the quickie is enough to drive one of steve's Dolby units.
Xavier,
Are you saying that I can get a little more gain from my Seduction by using the Quickie??? how is this done???
Jay
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The Quickie has around 6dB of gain in stock form. Just plug the output of the Seduction into the input of the Quickie and turn the Quickie volume knob up all the way to get the full gain increase from the output of the Quickie. Note that this will still be less overall gain than the Eros - about 46 vs. 50dB, and way less gain than you get at the balanced output of the Tube Repro, which is around 64dB.
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Doc, what's the gain of the repro unbalanced? I recall trying that directly to the dolby and not being enough. maybe I'm wrong. or maybe the atr heads have lower output than those of the technics?
In any case I will have an Eros soon and it is great news to know it should work directly.
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The Quickie has around 6dB of gain in stock form. Just plug the output of the Seduction into the input of the Quickie and turn the Quickie volume knob up all the way to get the full gain increase from the output of the Quickie. Note that this will still be less overall gain than the Eros - about 46 vs. 50dB, and way less gain than you get at the balanced output of the Tube Repro, which is around 64dB.
Thanks Dan,
I have a Repro so I am farmiliar with it's gain, I feel that if my Seduction had just a little more gain I could live with it!!!
Jay
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Doc, what's the gain of the repro unbalanced? I recall trying that directly to the dolby and not being enough. maybe I'm wrong. or maybe the atr heads have lower output than those of the technics?
In any case I will have an Eros soon and it is great news to know it should work directly.
Xavier,
The gain of the Repro unbalanced is 50db.
Jay
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Thanks Jay,
That's what I thought.
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Yes, the Eros and the unbalanced output of the Tube Repro use circuits that are similar enough that the gain is pretty much the same at 50dB. The output of the ATR heads is IIRC around the same as the Flux Magnetics heads that are made for the Technics and Otari decks. So they do have a bit lower output level than a stock Technics head. Off the top of my head I would say the difference is maybe 2dB. Stock Otari 5050 heads might be a 1/2 dB hotter than that.
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For the most part, I think we're talking about the stock 1/4 track heads since Dolby B was seldom used with 1/2 track 1/4 inch tape. There are of course, some folks who have 1/2 track 1/4 inch Dolby encoded production masters which were used to produce commercially available 1/4 track tapes but those are pretty unusual.
Regarding the gain, there are a few Dolby B tapes that are duplicated at some pretty low levels (presumably to gain more headroom and dynamic range). I've found that some prerecords do have enough level to be properly decoded with the Dolby units I mod but some do not when fed with a tape head amp with 50dB gain. I'd feel better if the amp had more than 56dB gain with most 1/4 track heads that I've tried.
So, I don't think I can recommend the Seduction/Quickie for use with my Dolby units.
Now the Eros with a boost from a Quickie is probably an excellent fit. In fact, I think that the Eros Tape Head Amp is an incredible bargain. It can be easily upgraded with better parts as funds become available.
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There you go guys. Its awesome how my crappy post turned into a thread full of information!